QuakeIndex

Earthquake · reviewed by a seismologist

M 1.7md

12km ESE of Gilroy, CA

· 5.4 km deep · released about 10 lb of TNT

Felt it? Tell USGS Check my area
10 km30 km60 km120 km N Santa Clara County 37 kmSan Benito County 50 kmSanta Cruz County 51 kmMerced County 69 kmStanislaus County 78 kmMonterey County 80 kmAlameda County 87 kmSan Mateo County 97 kmSan Joaquin County 110 km
Distance rings around the epicentre, with the nearest towns at their true direction and later quakes as coloured dots. Not a shaking map — see the USGS ShakeMap for that.
When
Magnitude
M 1.7 (md)
Depth
5.4 km below the surface
Felt
no reports yet
Nearest
Santa Clara County, 37 km NW
Status
Reviewed by a seismologist

USGS · last changed by USGS · we first saw it 1212 days ago

This was a minor earthquake. Quakes this small are rarely felt and do not cause damage.

How big was it?

This earthquake released about 10 lb of TNT. Magnitude is logarithmic: each whole step up releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 2.7 would have released about 32 times as much.

  1. Mineral, Virginia 2011 M 5.8 1,500,000× the energy of this one
  2. Magna, Utah 2020 M 5.7 1,000,000× the energy of this one
  3. Around the size people start to feel M 3.0 92× the energy of this one
  4. This earthquake M 1.7 about 10 lb of TNT

Energy from the Gutenberg–Richter relation (log10E = 1.5M + 4.8), rounded to two figures; bar length is magnitude, which is already a logarithm of energy. Magnitudes of past earthquakes from the USGS catalogue.

Where

Epicentre 36.9563, -121.4417. Map © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Nearby places

PlaceDistanceDirection
Santa Clara County, CA 37 km (23 mi) SE of here earthquakes near Santa Clara County
San Benito County, CA 50 km (31 mi) NW of here earthquakes near San Benito County
Santa Cruz County, CA 51 km (31 mi) E of here earthquakes near Santa Cruz County
Merced County, CA 69 km (43 mi) WSW of here earthquakes near Merced County
Stanislaus County, CA 78 km (48 mi) SSW of here earthquakes near Stanislaus County
Monterey County, CA 80 km (50 mi) N of here earthquakes near Monterey County

Places and coordinates from the US Census Bureau Gazetteer (2024). Distances are from the epicentre.

Aftershocks so far

37 earthquakes have been recorded within 50 km since this one.

  1. 1.8 11km NNW of Hollister, CA
  2. 1.8 16km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  3. 2.1 11km NNE of Pinnacles, CA
  4. 1.9 6km SW of Hollister, CA
  5. 2.3 6km N of Hollister, CA
  6. 3.0 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  7. 1.9 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  8. 2.4 11km S of Tres Pinos, CA
  9. 1.6 7km WSW of Gilroy, CA
  10. 1.6 1km ESE of Tres Pinos, CA
  11. 1.5 6km SW of Hollister, CA
  12. 1.9 10km NW of Pinnacles, CA
  13. 1.7 6km SSW of Tres Pinos, CA
  14. 2.4 8km NE of Gilroy, CA
  15. 1.6 19km SW of Gustine, CA

Counted from the QuakeIndex database, which ingests the USGS feed every 30 seconds · as of . QuakeIndex does not forecast aftershocks. When USGS issues an operational aftershock forecast it appears on the USGS event page.

For this area

The largest earthquake within 50 km in our catalogue was M 5.1 on 2022-10-25 — it released about 110,000 times the energy of this one.

From the QuakeIndex catalogue, built from the USGS FDSN event service.

On USGS

QuakeIndex does not issue warnings. For earthquake early warning see ShakeAlert.